Restless
by Aubrey Lowe
Summary: Post-GoF Ginny Weasley is restless at the idea of lounging around and pretending everything's okay. Fortunately, Luna's in the same mindset. T for sparse swears.


Context: Set in the summer before Ginny's fourth year, just after the events of GoF and the Tri-Wizard Tournament, but before the DA is formed. The T rating is for a couple of swears.

I don't own Ginny or Luna.

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><p>Ginny Weasley was bored. Mind-numbingly, finger-tappingly, throw-a-book-across-the-room-in-frustration bored. She couldn't even claim to have run out of things to do, because <em>that<em> list was infinite. She had a lot of holiday reading to do for next year, her brothers would be perfectly willing to play Quidditch with her, and her mum could always use some help around the house. It wasn't that she didn't have anything to do; it was that she couldn't do the thing she wanted.

She _wanted_ to comfort Harry. Tell him it was _okay_ when his - not his friend, but his accomplice? Mentor? Colleague? - had just been killed and Voldemort was back and everything was _so not okay_ it was starting to make her head hurt. Instead all she could do was flop down onto her bed and sigh at the ceiling.

Maybe she wasn't bored. Maybe she was just restless. Restless. That was a good word for it.

_Restless [rest-lis]_

_1. The inability to remain at rest_ (it was true that she hadn't been fully relaxed since she'd been home)  
><em>2. Unquiet or uneasy, as a person, the mind or the heart.<em> (how about all of the above?)  
><em>3. Never at rest; perpetually agitated or in motion<em>(her mind certainly hadn't stopped spinning and agitated was the understatement of the millennia)  
><em>4. Without restful sleep<em>(how long did she sleep last night? Five hours? Was that her record this month?)  
><em>5. Unceasingly active<em>

Ginny consciously stopped her fingers from drumming on the bedside table and her foot from tapping against the edge of the bed. On all counts, she was restless.

She wished she were older, or wiser, or that she knew what she was doing. She wished that there was someone who could teach her how to fight. That she wasn't so damn helpless all the time. But there was no one up to par. Mum was soft, Bill and Charlie weren't there, Percy was useless, Fred and George had nothing but cheap tricks and scams to offer her. The only people close at hand who had so much as_ looked_ at anything remotely dangerous were Harry and Ron, and perhaps her father, though he was far more interested in muggle pastimes than he was in magical predicaments. So that left Harry and Ron. Ron would tell her to fuck off, but _Harry-_ she squashed the thought. Harry would be more of a distraction that a help, if he didn't automatically side with her brother. She pressed her fingers to her temples in frustration. She really needed to work on getting rid of that damned crush.

There was always Hermione. But Hermione didn't do secrets, especially when danger was involved. So who-

The phone rang. Ginny shot up, muscles freezing at the edge of the bed. The offending object sat on her nightstand, shrieking like a hooligan. Dad had bought the landline years ago during a muggle phase, and it was part of the pile of junk that came with living in her own room. She didn't think she'd ever heard it ring. Hefting up the receiver she held it tentatively away from her ear.

"Um, hello?"

She couldn't hear anything. She tried holding one of the ends closer to her mouth.

"HELLO!?"

There was a muffled squeal from the other end of the line. Ginny was reminded of the time Crookshanks went head to head with the garden gnomes. _How do you hold this damn thing?_ She tried to remember back to the last time she'd been with her dad to his office in the Ministry. So the cord goes at the bottom...

Flipping the phone around, Ginny pressed it to her ear. "HELLO?" She yelled again.

"Well you don't have to shout."

The voice drifted lazily, if a tad indignantly down the end of the line. Ginny should have known who it was from the squeal.

"Luna?" She shifted herself back onto the bed. It felt odd talking normally to someone who was so far away. Could Luna even hear her?

"Mmmmm."

She waited, but the Ravenclaw didn't offer any more information. "How did you get this number?"

"I asked your mum to send it to me."

Heat flared in her cheeks. She had half a mind to storm out right now chew her mother up for giving out her private number to Loony Lovegood. _Ginny_ didn't even know the number for this phone. Not to mention the fact that her mum was giving out telephone numbers to strangers. She could use a talking to about that. But later; to do it now she'd have to leave her room and get swept up by the tsunami that was her family. No thank-you.

"Did you want something Luna?"

"Huh?"

"_Why did you call?"_ Her tongue twisted around the last word, which kind of diluted the irritation she was going for.

"Oh yes, that."

There was a lengthy pause. She waited.

"I've been thinking about Harry."

Ginny had to restrain her heart from leaping out her chest and smacking Luna across the face.

"What about Harry exactly?"

Conscious that she'd just sworn off her crush, she attempted to manually relax her muscles. It wasn't working. If Luna piped up with something like, 'isn't he dreamy', she'd probably go into cardiac arrest.

"Well, specifically Harry and You-Know-Who."

Ah yes. That too.

"Because He's back-"

Ginny was taken aback by her certainty. Though no member of her own family doubted Harry for a second, most of their neighbours, all of the papers, the Ministry…

_"Ginny are you listening? We need to do something to fight."_

"We?" Her voice was more high-pitched than usual. Not usually daunted, the idea of facing off against He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named left her in a cold sweat.

"Yes. Us. A group even, if we can find people who'll help."

"But what the bloody hell did you call me for?"

There was another pause. Ginny began to wonder if she'd perhaps been too sharp.

"Because I thought you believed Harry, when he said You-Know-Who was back, and you've always been kind to me." Beat. "And you're kind of badass."

Ginny laughed in surprise. Luna had been in her classes since she'd started at Hogwarts and she'd bumped into her in the corridors often enough, but she'd never heard the Ravenclaw swear. She told her as much.

"Well, I read somewhere that if you want to get an argument across you should swear at the beginning or the end to show conviction. Did it work? Will you join me?"

Still laughing, Ginny nodded.

"...Is that a yes?"

"Yes." she said, embarrassed again at being caught out by the telephone. "What did you have in mind?"

"Can you come to my house tomorrow? I can make tea."

Ginny weighed up how likely it was that going to Loony Luna's house would end in her being murdered and made into Wargle pie. The chance was low, she decided. But it wasn't up to her.

"I'll have to ask mum..." Just thinking about that conversation made her cringe. She could imagine the classic; 'You've been in your room for three days straight young lady, and now you want to leave the house entirely? When I was at school the holidays were about spending time with family, but I suppose that's not important to you is it?'. She was over that argument before it even began.

But her mother _had_ given Luna her number. So maybe; just maybe...

"It should be alright."

She could always cancel later, she thought. From the sounds Luna was making on the other end of the phone, she was either jumping up and down with excitement or having a seizure. Ginny hoped it was the former.

"So I'll pick you up tomorrow?"

"…Do you need my address?"

"I already have it. I'll see you at nine."

And with that ominous bit of news, Luna hung up.

Feeling slightly exhausted, and more than a little overwhelmed, Ginny shifted herself around the right way on her bed, snuggling into her pillow. As the blankets tangled around her, and the afternoon air came in through the window a little too cold, she found herself frustratingly uncomfortable.

Giving up, she flipped her legs around, until she was in a position to rummage under her bed. Avoiding the used tissues and a quidditch jersey that hadn't seen the light of day since second year, she finally pulled out what she was looking for.

Taking up a cross-legged position on her bed, Ginny opened the one book she owned that hadn't been passed down through her six brothers. Printed in bold on the inside cover were the words:

**Book of Spells**

**by**

**Miranda Goshawk**

And underneath, in a scrawl that would be indecipherable to those who hadn't asked their mums to translate;

_Ginevra,_

_I've been saving this for somebody special, but as none has appeared you might as well have it._

_You may need it with all of those ill-mannered brothers._

_Aunt Muriel x_

Ginny always wondered why Muriel had bothered with the 'x', but she'd never had the nerve to ask her great aunt in person. Flipping it over to the contents page, her eyes stuck to an entry half-way down the first page.

Bat Bogey Hex (_Vespertilionas Nigranae)_

Smoothing down the old spine, Ginny began flipping through the pages. Sitting in her room waiting for tomorrow wasn't an option. She had to be ready to fight back any and all dangers that bombarded her as soon as possible.

Pulling out her wand - and thanking Merlin underage magic couldn't be detected in a magical household – she got to work.

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><p>And that's that :)<p>

Thanks for reading and if you're interested in me writing a one-shot for you shoot me a pm. Any and all reviews welcome.

Have a nice day,

Bre x


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